She's Back
by anatomyfan
Summary: Once changing her clothes, after her clothes were turned over to trace, Danielle walks to the break room in a daze, trying to fathom what happened when she stops in her tracks to see her ex-girlfriend, Sara Sidle, leaning against the table.
1. Chapter 1

**Thanks to Ion Television, I started watching CSI again and this is based around Warrick's death. The only thing I own in this story is the original characters.**

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It's been the worst day for the CSI team, especially for Danielle Sanchez. She was the first on scene to a shooting and the victim turned out to be her daughter's godfather and her co-worker, Warrick Brown, who died in her arms. She stands up when she sees Catherine Willows walking over and when Catherine sees the blanket on the ground, covering his body, and the blood saturated on Danielle's top, she didn't want to believe that Warrick was dead.

"I am really sorry." Danielle whispered as tears fill up in her eyes.

"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE WITH HIM!" Catherine yelled at her.

"Catherine, leave her alone." Grissom said to the senior female agent.

"It's ok. If it's ok with you, I want to escort Warrick's body back to the morgue." Danielle softly said to him.

"Yes." Danielle walks beside the body and gets into the waiting van.

Once changing her clothes, after her clothes were turned over to trace, Danielle walks to the break room in a daze, trying to fathom what happened when she stops in her tracks to see her ex-girlfriend, Sara Sidle, leaning against the table. They look at each other and Danielle is really surprised to see Sara there. Like magnets, they gravitate towards each other and tightly hug. Sara looks at her and her heart is slowly breaking when she sees the tears in Danielle's eyes.

"I missed you so much." Danielle softly said.

"I missed you too. I got on the first flight as soon as I heard the news." Sara replied. She places her hand behind Danielle's head and tenderly kisses her forehead, making the younger CSI agent close her eyes.

"I need you to tell me everything." Sara said with her voice hitching and they sit down.

"You don't need to see the picture in your head, Sara." Danielle softly said as Sara holds Danielle's hand between hers.

"Tell me."

"He took a bullet in the neck and I was holding him when he died. But I need to tell you something."

"What is it?"

"I know who did it. Warrick and I were working on a case together where Jeffery McKeen was framing Warrick for murder. So I need you to promise me that if something happens to me that you will look after my daughter for me." Sara looks at her, not quite understanding the last part. The gang walks into the break room and hug Sara.

"We want to help you finish the case you and Warrick were working on." Nick said to Danielle.

"Thanks."

"I'll make the arrangements." Sara said.

"I'll come with you." Greg said.

"Ok, so this is what we have so far." Danielle said to Nick, Catherine, Grissom and Brass inside the evidence room then tells them about Gedda and how the LVPD framed Warrick for murdering him.

"But that's not the biggest thing." Danielle finished.

"What is it?" Grissom asked.

"I was walking towards the alley and saw McKeen talking to Warrick through the window of his car." They look at her.

"Are you positive that it was McKeen?" Brass asked.

"I couldn't hear the gunfire because of the loud music of the club, but I know McKeen's height anywhere. He wiped the gun down, tossed it into Warrick's car, staging a suicide, then walked away."

"That's why were wasn't any gun powder on Warrick's neck." Grissom said.

"If McKeen knows that I'm onto him -"

"You'll end up like Warrick." Nick said and Danielle nods.

"We're definitely not going to let that happen. Not on my watch." Brass said.

"Thank you." Danielle walks to the front desk and smiles when she sees her sister and daughter and carefully picks up the three month old.

"Thank you for bringing her." Danielle said to her sister.

"Not a problem. Everything ok?" She asked.

"Somewhat. Any chance Kevin can drive by the house a couple times throughout the day?"

"Sure."

Sara and Greg walk into Warrick's bedroom to get a suit for him to be buried in. Sara opens the closet door and pulls out a jacket.

"So Danielle has a child?" Sara asked Greg.

"Three month old baby girl. She's cute as a button. This is her." Greg said and shows Sara the picture of the gang with Danielle holding Elizabeth in her arms inside Warrick's apartment.

"Do you know how she got pregnant?"

"She was raped at the Miami Conference for ballistics and the father was her former supervisor. She tricked him on signing away his parental rights and he was charged for sexual assault and got 15 years. We all flew to Miami to support her. She was going to tell you when you left."

"Now I feel like a bigger moron for leaving her." Sara said and Greg looks at her.

"You didn't know. Catherine found her in a hysterical mess and we almost had to commit her. Thankfully, she turned it around and Elizabeth is a happy baby with Danielle being the best Mom to her."

"I figured she would have named her Elizabeth after her favorite TV actress, Elizabeth Montgomery."

As Danielle is in the break room with Elizabeth sleeping in the car seat, Catherine quietly walks into the room.

"Hey. Does Pritchard mean anything?" Catherine softly asked.

"Isn't he an officer?"

"He is. The gun that was used in Warrick's death is from an armed robbery that the gun was supposed to be destroyed." Danielle takes the file and reads it.

"And it wasn't. I want to say a lot of colorful words, but with my baby in the room, not going to happen. If Pritchard and McKeen were in this together, that means that they're running Gedda's book. Really big names are in that book."

"Danielle, I'm sorry about earlier." Catherine softly said.

"It's ok. Heat of the moment."

"Danielle's story checks out about McKeen talking to Warrick and firing the shot." Grissom said to Catherine and Sara when Nick jogs into the room a few hours later.

"Guys, Danielle's gone after McKeen and Pritchard." Nick said.

"What about her daughter?" Catherine asked.

"Still in the break room."

"I'll stay with Elizabeth." Sara said then heads to the break room to see the baby awake. She walks over and gently picks up the baby.

"Phew. You have a dirty diaper." Sara softly said then looks at the three month old, who is looking at her, and slowly smiles.

"You look just like your Mommy. I know that I hurt her really badly when I left before knowing that she was pregnant with you, but I will make this one promise to you. I am going to make your mother happy again. Even if it means me coming back to work here then I will." Sara softly said as she is changing Elizabeth's diaper.

Danielle's entire arm is shaking with anger as she points her gun at McKeen inside the woods after hunting him down. Pritchard died in the car accident, but McKeen had really bad injuries to him.

"Shoot me!" He yelled and she lowers her gun.

"I'm not going to because I will make sure I yell out cop killer in general population." She said as Brass runs over.

"Danielle." Brass said and she looks at him.

"I didn't fire my weapon. As much as I wanted to." She said to the Detective then walks away. She walks to the car and climbs up the hill and Nick hugs her.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Catherine asked inside her office to Danielle.

"I wasn't thinking." Danielle said.

"Clearly you weren't. But I'm glad that you're ok." Catherine hugs her.

"Do that again and I will take your badge." Danielle nods.

Sara is holding Elizabeth inside the DNA lab with the lab techs cooing over the baby. Danielle slowly smiles then walks over to the group.

"Ok moochers, I need my baby back." Danielle said then takes Elizabeth and looks at the group, who are all looking at them.

"Don't you all have jobs to do?" She asked and they get back to work. Sara places her hand on Danielle's shoulder as they walk out of the room.

"She's amazing. We played peek-a-boo, she ate, slept, pooped." Sara said.

"Just like a normal baby would. Thank you." Danielle softly said then kisses her cheek. She doesn't want to think about after the funeral because she knew that Sara would be leaving again.

With her heart.


	2. Chapter 2

**I decided to do one more chapter that's based in the series finale. And Sara doesn't chase after Grissom in this one**

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A lot has changed since Warrick's funeral. When Sara came back from Costa Rica for good, she and Danielle got married and had a baby boy they named Nicholas Warrick Sanchez-Sidle. But over time and when Elizabeth was five and Nick was three, the women divorced and six months ago, Danielle accepted a job as Lab Director and left Nevada with the kids, breaking Sara's heart in the process because both women were still madly in love with each other.

Danielle is in her bedroom as she is working on paperwork when her cell phone starts ringing. She looks at it then answers the call when she doesn't recognize the number.

"Lab Director Sanchez." Danielle said.

"Lab Director? I can't believe it." Danielle slowly smiles and adjusts her glasses when she heard the familiar voice.

"Catherine. How's LA treating you?"

"It's good. Always sunny, but not like Vegas. Listen, I don't if you had heard about the bombing at Eclipse." Catherine said.

"I did and our city is on high alert for it."

"Ok. We need your help." Danielle looks at her watch and looks up flights to Vegas.

"Let me give you my flight info. I'll have to leave the kids with my mother."

"Where are you flying from?" Catherine asked as she writes the information down.

"Do you know where in the world Danielle is?" Ecklie asked Sara outside the lab as Sara was getting ready to go clean the apartment to hopefully have Danielle stay with her.

"She's the lab director in Chicago. Moved to be back with her family and has the kids, but she's flying in...two hours. Catherine told me that she got a hold of Danielle and she's picking her up."

"Good, we need her."

Two hours later, Danielle places her backpack onto her back and jogs in the airport to the arrivals lounge and sees Catherine waiting for her. The two women tightly hug and head to Catherine's car.

"This is all you brought?" Catherine asked.

"Yeah. Since having kids, I had to travel lighter." Danielle said.

They walk to the lab and a woman does a double take and slowly smiles.

"Aunt Dani." Danielle slowly smiles when she recognizes her.

"Oh my god. Lindsey." The two of them tightly hug.

"You work here now?" Danielle asked.

"I joined the team after you left. Sara's been miserable since you left. How are the kids?"

"Despite them being little terrors at times, they're great. I owe you a cup of coffee."

"You're on." Danielle turns to walk to the office when she stops to see Sara standing there.

"Dani." Sara said.

"Sara. Hi." Danielle said as she nervously smiles.

"Hi. Come here." They hug and Danielle relaxes in her ex-wife's arms and she feels Sara relaxing as well.

"I'm glad you're here." Sara whispered.

"Me too." They pull out of the hug and look at each other and both are seeing the same thing in each others eyes.

Please don't ever leave me again

"Hey! Welcome back Dani." Greg said then tightly hugs her.

"It's nice to be back. Ok, when they pull you from the ocean, this is big." Danielle said to Grissom then hugs him.

"Thank you for coming back for this case, Danielle." DB said then hugs her.

"Well, when Catherine called, I really couldn't say no. So, I've been looking through similar bombings back in Chicago and -"

"What are you doing in Chicago?" Grissom asked.

"Danielle's the lab director for the entire city." Sara said with pride in her eyes.

"As I was saying, the bombers were everyday people until they got flowers. They would smell the flowers then be instantly drugged, under the control of the leader." Danielle said as they look at the case files.

"Did you catch the leader?" Catherine asked.

"No because I think your leader is here in Vegas."

"What was the substance?" Sara asked.

"Devil's Breath." Grissom said.

Danielle swallows a lump in her throat when she looks at the bomb right in front of her in the parking garage. Across town, Sara is in front of a suicide bomber.

"You better tell Dani that I'm still in love with her." Sara said.

"You better tell Sara that I'm still in love with her." Danielle said to Catherine.

"Tell her yourself." Catherine said then she, Danielle and Greg cut the wires of the three bombs simultaneously and the clock stops winding down. Danielle steps away and squats down while sighing in relief. She stands up and hugs Greg and Catherine.

A few hours later, Danielle watches from afar as Sara was named the Lab Director. Sara looks at her ex-wife and sees Danielle softly smiling.

"Will you excuse me?" Sara asked then walks over to Danielle.

"Congratulations Director." Danielle said and Sara smiles.

"I've worked hard for this." Sara said as Danielle adjusts her backpack.

"You heading out?" Sara asked.

"Yeah. I promised the kids movie night tonight when they got out of school. They really miss you." Danielle said.

"Do you?"

"I always do. Your life is here and mines in Chicago. I don't regret us because we have two amazing kids. But I'll give you one more advise. If your head is telling you that you should be here while your heart is saying that you don't belong here, flip a coin." Danielle flips a coin to Sara, who catches it, then walks away. The older CSI looks at the coin and sees a brain on one side and a heart on the other.

Sara sits in her office and looks at the picture of her, Danielle, Elizabeth and Nick when Nick started school the previous year and quietly sighs then looks at the coin Danielle flipped to her.

"Go after her." Catherine said and Sara looks at her.

"She's not in love with me." Sara said.

"No? Then why did last night before we cut the wires to the bombs did she tell me to tell you that she's still in love with you?"

"She said that?"

"She did. So why are you still here? Go after her!"

"Greg, you have a 4-20 in Evansville. Luke, a 4-19 in Rose Park with Nick and Jay, and Sofia, you're working with Greg and I don't want you two slacking off because you two are in a relationship together." Danielle said to her team and the duo look at her like a deer in headlights.

"Relax. I'm not going to send one of you to the graveyard shift. Just don't anything stupid to make me do that." They nod and head out as Danielle walks to her office and stops in her tracks when she sees Sara leaning against her desk.

"What are you doing here?" Danielle asked.

"I'm following my heart because this is where I belong. You are the love of my life, Dani and I didn't fight hard enough for you and for us to keep our marriage." Sara said and Danielle walks over, cups Sara's cheeks and kisses her. That night, they, along with the kids, have a movie night with the kids cuddled up to Sara as Danielle is making the popcorn. She looks over and slowly smiles as the sight of Sara and the kids and she knew one thing.

She wants one more child and to be married again.

To Sara.


End file.
